GRIPPMAN v. NIGERIA AIRWAYS AND ANOTHER

In the Ghana High Court, Ammah J. determined a preliminary point of law in a suit by a tutor who had resided in Nigeria from 1980 to 1986. The claimant consigned two shipments of personal effects from Ibadan, Nigeria to Ghana via a first defendant airline operating on the Accra–Lagos route, with the second defendant airline receiving the cargo for delivery. When he presented at the second defendant’s cargo section, a sound system from the first consignment and all items in the second were not delivered. He sued in November 1987 seeking return or value of the items and ¢500,000 damages for wrongful detention. The first defendants invoked Order 25 to argue that Article 29 of the Warsaw Convention, made part of Ghana law by L.N. 155, extinguished any right to damages after two years. Rejecting reliance on ongoing correspondence and negotiations, the court found no estoppel, disability or fraud to toll time, and dismissed the action against the first defendants with costs, allowing the case to proceed against the second defendants.